Masters: Oh yeah, I was hoping. I was optimistic because of those conversations that I had, and like I said, this wasn't me coming up to Hunter, this was them coming to me on a few occasions, me hearing this from other guys. Like Big Show telling me, "Hey, Vince is going crazy for ya!" But at the same time I looked at the landscape and I was like, "gosh this is crowded," 'cause they traded so many of the Smackdown guys over to RAW. It was just like, how are we going to find any time for you on television, how are we gonna get any time to actually do anything? I tried to pitch angles for Drew McIntyre and myself, to do a program so we both could try to get each other over. RAW was just jam-packed, I think Smackdown would have been the better place to stay.

WrestlingINC.com: Do you think if you would have been stayed on Smackdown it probably would have been different?

Masters: I don't know if it would have been or not. I got to a point a couple of weeks before my release where I knew that they needed babyfaces much more than heels, and that they weren't doing anything with me and I just thought to myself, "if they aren't planning on doing anything with me now, are they ever?" I was really at that point… and like I said, I had had those conversations with them, but it wasn't materializing to anything. I wasn't taken off TV, but I was just on Superstars winning matches. So I already was thinking to myself, "maybe I should get out now, maybe I should reach out to the opposition or something." But I opted not to, and then they came up to me two weeks later and I got the call.

WrestlingINC.com: Do you think there was anything you really could have done different during that last run? Do you think maybe uh, because you didn't go to management or you know…

Masters: Yeah, yeah, I could have probably taken more initiative. I was kind of involved in this mindset where I was like, "let my work speak for itself, let me go out there and really just try and put on the best performance possible every night." But I could have definitely probably focused and taken more initiative on pulling Vince aside and telling him, "hey I'm ready, give me something," or pitching ideas to Hunter 'cause I was starting to build some better rapport with him as far as our conversations. So I definitely think I could have probably taken more initiative in that aspect, and not completely focused on, "oh let me just become the best worker I can." I could have been thinking of different ideas to maybe repackage myself because that was what the ultimate thing in our conversations was. He was like, "we don't know what to do with you... we want to push you but it's either we take you off TV for 3 months or maybe we repackage you," or as he said, a "fresh coat of paint."

WrestlingINC.com: What was the reason they gave you when they released you?

Masters: Company restructuring is what I was told. What that means, I don't know. I know they have a lot of people in developmental and that was a really bad week for the market, but I still don't know necessarily if I should have been one of the expendable few just because I feel like I was coming along so well. I just needed the right opportunity to re-insert myself and just some kind of reinvention of myself. But in the long run, it can always be the best thing too. Again, I am staying busy working, I'm doing other things and if it's meant to be you know, maybe I'll be back there. If it's not meant to be, I won't. I am 29 years of age and I still feel like there is a lot of things I can do with myself, you know wrestling and non- wrestling. You know, sports entertainment and wrestling is always going to be my ultimate passion. So I don't see myself going anywhere anytime soon.